The Redmen hope to put together the longest streak of Red Cup victories since Sydney Academy won seven-straight tournaments, starting at the inaugural event in 1978, to 1984. Riverview set a record with their eighth Red Cup triumph last year.

A player that’s been a part of all three recent Red Cup victories is captain Dillon McCarron. The 18-year-old forward is tops in the Cape Breton High School Hockey League with 27 points (10 goals and 17 assists) in 17 games.

“The first year, the guys try and explain it to you, but it doesn’t do it justice, there are so many people,” he said of the crowds. “You’re going to get nervous. This will be my third year and I’ll still be nervous, but once you get out there, hockey’s a fast enough game that you just kind of use your instincts and react to everything, so it doesn’t affect you too much.”

With a tight tournament format, McCarron said there’s no margin for error.

“There’s no time off,” he said. “Every game means so much and that’s what makes it fun, too.”

Riverview opens play on Thursday against the Sydney Academy Wildcats at 8 p.m. That follows the tournament opener between the Glace Bay Panthers and Memorial Marauders at 6 p.m.

On Friday, the remainder of the tournament entries will see action. King’s Edgehill School of Windsor, N.S., and the Lockview Dragons of Fall River join a pair of New Brunswick teams, École L’Odyssée of Moncton and the Leo Hayes Lions of Fredericton.

“(L’Odyssée) is a very quick, hard-working team, so we’ll have our work cut out for us playing them Friday night,” said Redmen head coach Darryl MacDonald. “Leo Hayes is in first place in the Fredericton league.

“King’s-Edgehill, we defeated them 4-3 in the championship game of Memorial’s tournament and they have a tough team. They only get better as the year goes on. Lockview is in the top two or three teams in Halifax, so it’s a good draw for sure.”

MacDonald said his club features plenty of depth up front with balanced scoring. His blue-line is led by Grant Colbourne and D.J. Collins, while the rookie goaltending tandem of Kenzie Carrigan and Michael O’Rielly have elevated their play since the holidays.

“We have two or three guys who are in their third year, Dillon (McCarron) and Grant Colbourne, so it goes a long way to help settle the boys down,” said MacDonald. “Even some of the guys who played last year, we had six Grade 10s last year. That goes a long way where they were in the tournament last year and had some success and are used to the crowd.

“There’s a lot of jitters, especially early in the weekend.”

The top team in each division following round-robin play move on to the championship on Sunday at 3 p.m. All games will be played at the County Recreation Centre.

The Riverview Redmen are preparing to defend their title at the 37th edition of the Red Cup Showcase high school hockey tournament. From left are Redmen captain Dillon McCarron and assistant captains Grant Colbourne, Cody Brenna and D.J. Collins.

Comments

Recent comments

@ Terry Quirk... Are you serious?! The tournament has ALWAYS been at the County... which you may or may not know is right next to Riverview! You must not have gone there. As for the "poor planning", if people don't want to show up, then don't show up. Red Cup still generates more community attendance than any other high school tournament in the area, so I think they'll be just fine!

Hey,
Couldn't you have picked a better Arena than the Coxheath one?? The Bay Plex,Emera in North Syney or Centre 200. Any Arena would be better than this old place. Even the old North Sydney Forum would be better. No Wheelchair Access & almost as old as the old Sydney Forum was. Plus the bridge right there is still out & you have to go aroung to get to Sydney River & Sydney! Bad planning on someones part !!